phlebotomy before nursing?

its good.....i am an LPN...and i dont know how to do this pholebetomy stuff.....and hey also dont teach u in nursing school b/c the teachers said u will learn it on teh job..drawing blood..putting peripjeral lines..

go for it..if it wont affect yur schedule.....

I worked as a phlebotomist and really enjoyed it. I now know what it is like to work in a hospital which I hope will help me in school (what to expect, ease nerves, etc)

I was also considering taking a phlebotomy course prior to nursing. I'm a little nervous about being able to draw blood and start IVs so was worried that I would fail nursing school if I had problems with that. That is my only hesitation about nursing school. I know that it will be hard work and lots of studying which I am prepared to do. Is there alot of emphasis placed on this skill during nursing school or is this skill normally learned on the job?

I wouldn't expect your supplies to add up too much. When I took my CNA class through a community college my tuition was about $300, and then we had to buy our texts (2 - one CNA, one HHA), a BP/steth/therm kit, and scrubs. Those costs were right around $100 for me, and honestly the majority of that was the textbooks. I got my scrubs and supply kit from an online nursing gear/scrubs store for cheap cheap cheap. The scrubs only needed to last through clinicals (I have to wear a different color at work), so quality didn't matter much. You can find cheap scrub sets at a bunch of different online stores, and usually locally too. Check out the "Nursing Gear" forum under the "General" tab for some online shop recommendations.

Good luck!

i was a phlebotomist for almost 9 years prior to becoming a nurse, and i would highly recommend it to anyone. while a cna may work more closely with a nurse, at least in my experience, they might not get the same diversity of work. most cna's in my hospital only work on one or two floors whereas the phlebotomists go literally everywhere blood can be drawn. i believe the one thing phlebotomy will teach you that will help you more than anything else is just how to deal with people, and more importantly, how to deal with people who don't want you to do what you need to do.

this sort of environment really helped me to build my confidence and made it easy to talk to patients and see them...something that really many new grad nurses have a hard time doing. i learned how to use my hands without having to look at them while doing something that is really quite dangerous (ever wonder why anyone that handles blood or body fluids has to have a blood borne pathogen quiz or lecture every year?). i learned how to adapt to different environments and how to read a person in under 30 seconds. i can't tell you how many people are impressed with my grasp of certain basic things that a lot of new grads lack from simply not being exposed much to the medical environment in a diverse way.

it certainly isn't for everyone, but if you have a hard time doing this sort of job, you might want to rethink you're career choice anyway

I really see no value in this especially for $300 plus expenses. Phlebotomy is a skill that is learned with practice and you may or not get that in nursing school but then again you may or may not even use it in your nursing career! If you want to be an APN, again the phlebotomy aspect of it is the least of the skills you will need.

Save your money, you will need it.

Excellent idea. They do not teach it in nsg school. After 15 Years as a nurse (all non hospital)i have a job where it is to my benefit to draw blood myself instead of sending them to the lab. I took that type of course. If i had done it before nsg school I would have been a lot LESS stressed during school.

i did that too before i started nursing school and then i did the hospital internship where i had to complete a certain number of 'sticks' in order to pass the class. i think it's a good idea because you aren't going to get much, if any, practice in nursing school for phlebotomy and it's really handy to be able to do it yourself once you're on a floor because sometimes you don't have a tech or they can't get to it quickly enough because they have so many other things to do too. and there's always warm fuzzies if you can help the techs out if they're having a busy morning, and that can come in handy also.

:) andie

I also did phlebotomy for 5 years prior to nursing. I see no "down-side" to doing it. Since I work in ICU, we have to do our own peripheral sticks for blood cultures and the skill developed as a phlebotomist makes it easy, even for the edematous patients. You will learn to locate and palpate veins well, which is invaluable for starting IV's. However, peripheral sticks and starting IV's are only tasks, a very minor part of nursing, overall.